“Delia — ”
“I have to go,” she said, hating herself for cutting off her cousin but knowing she couldn’t maintain this conversation much longer without breaking down entirely.“I’ll see you in a little while.”
She hung up before Olivia could protest further, then immediately tried Caleb’s number again.It went straight to voicemail.
Of course it did.
“Any luck with the emergency frequencies?”she asked Pru, who gave a grim shake of her head.
“Nothing.It’s like they’ve created a dead zone around the affected areas.”Pru slid off her headphones, expression now almost defeated.“This is all way above my pay grade.”
Delia could relate.Her psychic powers might have taken a quantum jump this past month, but that didn’t mean she knew what she was doing.
“You’re doing better than you think,” Ty said, and she raised an eyebrow.
Had he meant that, or had he just decided to play angelic cheerleader?
She didn’t have much time to ponder the question, not when another energy spike suddenly smashed through her, this one strong enough to make her stagger.The apartment around them seemed to flicker, and for a moment, Delia could see through the walls, through the entire building, out across the city to a place where supernatural forces were gathering like storm clouds.
“This is getting worse,” she said as she gripped the arm of the sectional to steady herself.“The ley line energy is building toward something big.”
“How big?”
Before Delia could answer, the clocks on the appliances in the kitchen flickered for a second before going out.Emergency sirens began wailing in the distance, and both of Pru’s laptop screens went completely black.
Light still came through the big picture window overlooking the city, although she could see the sky outside was darkening as well, becoming heavy with unseasonable monsoon clouds.
Another text from an unknown number lit up her phone’s screen.
One hour.Come alone.Last warning.
“They’re escalating,” she said after she read the message aloud.
“And we still don’t have a plan,” Pru replied, her voice tight with frustration.
No, they didn’t.Delia’s powers might have been coruscating with energy like a flare-up of the aurora borealis, but she couldn’t control them, had no idea when they might be at their strongest…or whether they might abandon her when she needed them the most.
That meant she couldn’t go to Caleb’s rescue, not with any real hope of success.It killed her to be occupied with what seemed on the surface to be utterly mundane matters, but she knew there was nothing else she could do.
Right now, she just had to trust that he could take care of himself.If he’d managed to claw his way out of Hell, then he should be able to hang on for a few more hours.
“Keep monitoring the situation,” she told Pru, whose eyebrows lifted slightly.
“Going somewhere?”she asked.
“Yes,” Delia said as she slung her purse over her shoulder.
“I’m going to the airport to pick up my family.”
ChapterNine
The interiorof Angel’s Dream Wedding Chapel looked nothing like it had during his previous visits with Delia.Gone were the tasteful white roses and elegant simplicity that had fooled them into thinking this was just another Vegas wedding venue, one that Delia’s cousin had chosen exactly because it wasn’t your typical neon-lit temple of kitsch, including Elvis standing in as the minister.
No, now the space had been transformed into something that belonged in the deepest circles of Hell.
Caleb stood in what had once been the main aisle, his hands zip-tied behind his back with what felt like steel cable rather than plastic.The pews had been rearranged into a complex geometric pattern that reminded him of the one he and Delia had broken up at the Silver Bell chapel, and the air itself seemed to shimmer with malevolent energy.Symbols that definitely hadn’t been there before were carved into every surface — the walls, the floor, even the ceiling overhead — all of them pulsing with a sickly red light that made his demon blood respond with uncomfortable heat.
But it was the figure standing at what had once been the altar that commanded his attention.
